H.S. Girls Bowling: Ridgewood captures second North sectional crown in three years

The Ridgewood girls bowling team proudly displays the North Jersey Group 4 championship trophy after claiming its second sectional title in three years on Feb. 2. FRONT ROW, from left: seniors Natalie DeCandia and Jen Schablik. BACK ROW, from left: juniors Kelly Skettini, Zoe Singer and Leslie Lam.

HACKENSACK — Zoe Singer could not be accused of having a sense of entitlement.

Sectional-title-ment? That’s a different story entirely.

The Ridgewood High School junior rolled her team’s high game (219) and series (557) in the North Jersey sectional girls bowling tournament last Saturday at Bowler City. That helped boost the Maroons to a five-player, three-game tally of 2,603 and their second North Group 4 championship in the past three seasons.

RHS and group runner-up Immaculate Heart (2,438) will be among eight schools representing the North in the NJSIAA girls team finals at Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick on Monday at 9:30 a.m. Singer also came within three pins of qualifying for Wednesday’s state singles finals at Carolier.

Yet despite the fact that her team is North Brunswick-bound for the fourth time in five seasons – Ridgewood went as sectional runner-up in 2009 and 2012 – the right-hander approached Saturday’s tournament as if nothing was a given.

"Going into this, we didn’t really have any expectations," Singer said. "Obviously, we wanted to qualify" for States, and she emphasized, "we definitely wanted to qualify. But really, we just wanted to prove to ourselves that we could still do this, even though our season has not been as good as it was last year."

That was true to a degree, especially earlier in the winter.

At the FDU Holiday Challenge in December, RHS had a qualifying score in the 2,300s (770 average per game/153 per bowler) before rebounding to reach the Baker tournament semifinals. In last month’s Bergen County tournament, the team shot 2,309 in qualifying but was eliminated from the Baker quarterfinals by Westwood.

Then February came along.

Finishing strong

At sectionals, the Maroons were remarkably steady throughout, shooting games of 870, 876 and 857 to lead wire-to-wire. Their per-bowler average went up to 174, and if not for a near-miss on a single-pin spare in the last frame of the day, they would have posted 500-plus series across the board.

Ridgewood’s late-season surge continued on Wednesday with a 7-0 sweep of Indian Hills in the team’s final Big North Freedom Division match of the winter, which gave the girls their first league championship since winning the old NNJIL B Division in 2009.

Ever one to keep the mood light in an effort to relax his charges, RHS head coach Dick Bennett offered an amusing analysis of the upswing after Saturday’s event.

"I don’t think the girls have bowled as consistently or as well as I would expect them to, and our boys team has taken off," said Bennett, who doubles as the coach of both squads. "So, I decided to go and talk to our boys’ coach, and he won’t tell me what the heck’s going on. So he’s not helping me at all in this area."

Tongues in cheek or not, the Maroon girls stayed cool when it mattered most.

Singer tossed her 219 in Game 3, closing with four consecutive strikes to fill every frame. Senior Jen Schablik actually started the final 10th with a 7-spare and a strike to salvage a 157 and wrap up Ridgewood’s second-high series, a 539.

"That was relieving," said Schablik, who had fired a 208 in Game 2. "It was a pretty rough game, but it was good to close it out strong."

Senior Natalie DeCandia followed with a strike and a 9 to cap a 178 game and 515 series. Junior Leslie Lam blasted three strikes to finish out a 502 series, after she and classmate Kelly Skettini had started the day with their high games of 187 and 171, respectively.

"After the first game, we were like, ‘Wow, this is a really great score,’ and that just kind of carried us through," Singer said. "And bowling next to IHA was really important for us, because it kept us focused. We know all of those girls and are friends with them, so it was just a good scenario for us."

Sectional summary

IHA, which shared lanes 15 and 16 with Ridgewood for the tournament, trailed by 88 pins after the second game but managed only a 780 in the finale. Still, the Blue Eagles well outscored third-place Kearny (2,287) to earn their 13th straight trip to Carolier – extending a streak that started seven years before the North section split into groups and only the top five overall advanced to States.